I regularly travel to Universities for my job and it is more or less true. EE students learn a lot of theory and very few actual practical hands on skills. I always tell the students that my company wants to hire people who know which end of the soldering iron to hold. Schools with BSEET degrees typically graduate students who have built something. Some schools have both degrees.

I regularly travel to Universities for my job and it is more or less true. EE students learn a lot of theory and very few actual practical hands on skills. I always tell the students that my company wants to hire people who know which end of the soldering iron to hold. Schools with BSEET degrees typically graduate students who have built something. Some schools have both degrees.

@cupcakes: Some people look/ down on me for not having a "real" engineering degree but I love being more than just a engineer who knows allot but can't do anything.

Tell "some people" to push off :-) I know folks with PhDs who are complete dingbats, and I knwo people who didn;t graduate high school who are brilliant. The main thing is to be happy with who you are (said Max, philosophically :-)

I remember being a highschool senior and being so excited to start engineering school. I had gone to engineering camp at NC state and in the 11th grade and did so much cool stuff I could only imagine the awesome of being a full time student. Obviously it was going to be harder but it's be worth it.My first year I barely had a lab, and that was programming (appropiately so but still it didnt' fel quite right) and after talking with some of my friends I switched schools and programs to earn a BS in electrical engineering technology.

I learnt to solder and make PCBs, I had internships and shadows in coal mines, paper plants, substations, and construction firms. We built things, the designs I helped with were in fact going to be machines for making cardboard. Some people look/ down on me for not having a "real" engineering degree but I love being more than just a engineer who knows allot but can't do anything.

@Max... "I still have my original Weller soldering iron that I got in the 1970s "

Hey, I have a Weller iron from the '70s too....a TCP, is that what you have? With the magnetic tips for temperature control? Very clever - the tip has a slug of magnetic material that holds the power to the element on until it reaches a set temperature, at which point it loses its magnetic properties and switches the element off, until it cools down enough and switches it on again. You can get tips in various sizes for varous temperatures. Of course now you can get irons with thermistors built in that give much more precise control, but I've never had a problem with the TCP. Got through a few elements and lots of tips, but both are still available.

Remember the engineer's soldering motto: The bigger the blob, the better the job! I've built a lot of skyscrapers and nailed down hundreds of "dead bugs". How can you be an engineer if you don't get your hands dirty and stink up the lab a little bit, or even a lot.